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Susan Stroman engages PTTP students in Q&A
Stroman said the first time she met actor, producer Mel Brooks “he launched into ‘That Face’ a song from the second act of The Producers. Then, he danced past me around the room and ended up on the sofa. When he finished the song, he said, ‘Hello, I’m Mel Brooks.’” Stroman, who has won more than 20 awards for her work, including five Tony’s, is now in the process of directing her first movie, the film version of The Producers, based on the award-winning Broadway musical that she directed and choreographed. Brooks wrote and produced the musical, based on his earlier movie. She began her session with PTTP students at UD with an overview of her career. “I’ve been in dancing school all of my life,” she said. “I grew up in a house that was always filled with music.” Stroman told them her father played the piano wonderfully, and she was encouraged to study piano and guitar and take jazz, tap and ballet lessons. “It was big in our house to see Fred [Astaire] and Ginger [Rogers] dance in musicals.” After a while, it became clear that it wasn’t all about music, Stroman said, so she became involved in community theatre, choreographing and directing. Shortly after she graduated from UD, she applied for a dancing job in New York City. “They picked one nonequity card girl, and I was it,” she said. She worked as a singer/dancer after that, she said. “But, you can’t have a split focus in the theatre. You have to be one thing or the other, so, I chose dance.” Her first big break came when she was hired to choreograph the off-Broadway revival of Flora the Red Menace, Stroman said. Her work was seen by producer/director Hal Prince, who hired her to direct the dance sequences for his New York City Opera production of Don Giovanni. She said she got her first break on Broadway when she was hired to choreograph, Crazy for You. “I’ve had shows that have run and shows that haven’t, and even though some weren’t financial successes, they were creative successes. I’ve taken a piece of each show and carried it with me,” she said. “In your career, have you found yourself compromising, wanting more artistic integrity?” one student asked. “I’ve been very lucky. I haven’t had anyone stop me,” she said. Her only setback in the theatre came when she was doing a play in 2001 called, Thou Shall Not, a very dark piece. “While we were in tech, the [World Trade Center] Towers went down, and Broadway closed down for two days. Then, we went back, but, it was difficult for me to rally.”
When asked if she has plans to direct more films, she said that she’s been approached to make the 2000 Tony-Award-winning dance play Contact: The Musical, that she developed and directed with John Weidman, into a movie. Another student asked what she looks for when she hires an actor. “I look for people who are fearless, who want to jump into the pool with me. It’s wonderful to work with actors who will take chances,” she said. “Even though Uma Thurman [in the movie version of The Producers] was not a singer or dancer, she wasn’t afraid of being lifted off a desk or sliding across a room.” Stroman told them when she’s involved with a play or trying to come up with an idea for one, she does research. “If I’m doing Crazy for You, I do research about the 1930s. For Showboat, I tried to find out what society was like then.” Students asked about the differences between working on plays and film. She said collaborating on putting the movie together is much like rehearsing a play, but then the camera appears and everything is different. "You never feel the pressure of costs in theatre, but you do when you’re making a movie," she said. "There’s more camaraderie in theatre; you are all in it together. But in film, you work with the shooting crew, then, they’re gone. You work with the editing crew, and they’re gone. In theatre, you invest in relationships, in the team; it’s so heartfelt. Film is a more technical medium." “Was there ever a time in your career when you thought, ‘Why am I doing this?’” a student asked. “I have never had that moment,” she said. “I can only do this, I can only be in the theatre. I go to plays all the time. I’m inspired by the actors I see, and the stories that I feel,” she said. Stroman told them she once met a woman who was in an abusive relationship. When she saw the second act of Contact, about a similar abusive relationship, it inspired her to leave her husband. Then, quoting Max Bialystock, the main character in The Producers, she said, “Worlds are turned on such thoughts.” Article by Barbara Garrison To learn how to subscribe to UDaily, click here. |
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